Article 1
The centres belonging to the ground infrastructure of the Union Secure Connectivity Programme (the ‘control centres’) shall be located in Toulouse (France) Fucino (Italy) and Bettembourg (Luxembourg), provided that the following conditions are met: (a) the Commission and the potential concessionaire have concluded a concession contract in accordance with Article 19(5) of Regulation (EU) 2023/588, addressing, inter alia, a concept of operation based on the three centres to be permanently operational, to perform functions of equivalent level of criticality, and to jointly ensure a seamless backup of all functions for system operations and service delivery. (b) the Commission and each of the concerned Member State hosting a control center have concluded a hosting agreement in the form of an administrative agreement.